Healthy Eating Means Having A Healthy Relationship With Food.
With so many outside messages promoting diets and clean eating, it can seem like healthy eating means eating “perfectly” all the time. However, trying to control your meals to that extent is often more damaging than helpful. Building a healthy relationship with food is difficult, but definitely worth it. Here are a few tips to help enhance your healthy relationship with food.
Adopt a relaxed food mindset. Relaxed eating is when one is at ease with the social, emotional, and physical components of food. Look at your food choices through a filter of self-love and acceptance. This means listening to your body’s hunger cues, eating when you’re hungry (not just at designated “mealtimes”), allowing yourself to indulge in cravings as they happen without remorse, and saying yes to last-minute pizza with friends if that’s what will make you happy in the moment. Now is the perfect opportunity if you are reading this to reflect back on a time you had a meal that brought joy to your day - these moments help create your relationship with food.
Try not to think about foods as “good” or “bad.” Food is food; it shouldn’t have to carry a moral classification. When you think of certain types of food as “bad,” eating them can make one feel guilty and possibly remorseful. Letting go of moral labels for food can help one escape those negative emotions. For example, vegetables are great because they supply your body with necessary nutrients and contribute to keeping you healthy and cookies can also be great becuase they can be a delicious treat that is sometimes exactly what your body wants!
Seek balance, not perfection. As mentioned earlier, healthy eating means listening to your body, and your body needs balance to thrive. Too much of one thing at the expense of others is never a good thing. The phrase “everything in moderation” is a great mindset when it comes to food. If you eat a pile of chocolate chips pancakes for breakfast, you might consider going for a salad bowl at lunch, not because you need to make up for a “bad” meal but because your body thrives with balance and pairing pancakes with a more nutritious lunch will help restore your body's energy.
These three simple tips can help one improve their relationship with food. When you were reading this post you may be noticed yourself reflecting back on your own relationship with food and possibly picking up on healthy habits you already have and areas where you could improve. Try incorporating at least one of this tips into your day to day life, and if you already do them, continue to practice them as you are promoting a healthy relationship with food which is very important to developing a healthy lifestyle.
Thanks for reading!
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Resource:
Kronberg, Sondra. “How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Food.” National Eating Disorders Association, 28 Aug. 2018, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/how-have-healthy-relationship-food.
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